How Your Brain Falls FOR THE WRONG IDEAS

Imagine you’re 16 months into a global pandemic. False narratives are running rampant. Social and political divisiveness is growing. Tempers are flaring as a stress-induced cognitive fog has settled in. OK, you don’t have to imagine—this is the reality we’re living in. Under these circumstances, it’s urgent that we correctly categorize ideas as true or false, yank attention back when it’s been pulled away, and broaden our perspectives. Yet the very cognitive resources we need in order to accomplish all this have become depleted because of the high-stress circumstances we’ve been enduring. Is there a way out of this terrible Catch-22 of our collective moment? Yes, and it involves practicing mindfulness in action.

At the University of Miami, my research team and I study the impact of mindfulness training on high-demand groups like soldiers, first responders, and elite athletes.